KAV 5.0/McAfee VS9

Given the choice, which would you chose? To me, they both have their good points and bad. I've tried both. I'm having a tough time chosing. I thought maybe a little help might be in order.

 

I don't have any experience with McAfee VS9 (I used a previous version of McAfee about a year ago), but I would highly recommend KAV (just based on being a beta user/tester)... I currently have KAV5 Personal Beta2 installed and I will say that it's simply the best AV I have ever used (and I've tried quite a few over the years)!

 

KAV all the way. Personally i use McAfee VS9 and am more than happy with it. As far as detection rates go, KAV and McAfee are neck and neck, with the slight edge going to KAV. I also like the factt hat KAV updates frequently, something McAfee doesn't do, at least not yet. Oh, and there's that whole Active X thing for updates with McAfee. Either way, you can't lose, they're easily 2 of the top 3 AV programs out there.

 

KAV is lighter than McAfee VS9 and thats about the only reason why I rate KAV better

 

KAV5 Personal Beta2 ........KAV6 prototypes are already out for testing......

 

I really didn't notice any difference between the two when it came to connection speeds. The only difference I noticed is at startups/reboots. KAV 5 seem to take a long time to do its thing....... updating, only when I first started up in the morning, and I would guess real time protection scan. It takes a long time for me to able to get IE to open to my home page. That's maybe a good reason for me not to use KAV 5.

quasimutato....Are you planning on switching to KAV? I think McAfee is suppose to have daily updating for everyone this summer. At least that is what they say.

 

Hi Graystoke,

I tried out McAfee about a year ago. In general I liked the software but there were two reasons that I decided to chose Kaspersky:

1) Kaspersky had less conflicts with the other software that I was running at the time.

2) Kaspersky had multiple automatic updates each day. At the time, McAfee was only providing one per week. I believe that they are moving to once a day for their home users.

Interestingly, when I was cleaning a friends machine the other day, KAV was able to detect malware in some ADS associated with system and bmp files that McAfee did not detect.

Rich

 

Yeah I like the multiple updates each day. I know McAfee says it's going to daily updates for home users, but for some reason I have doubts. I guess I'm a skeptic.

 

Why not go with NOD32. I think it's better than both KAV and McAfee. JMHO. I know, I know, not what the original poster asked.

 

Firecat~ I'm not that adventurous!

Btw, judging from your sig, it looks like you use/prefer NOD32. How would you compare that to KAV

 

Not what he asked, but I'm very interested as to your rationale in saying NOD32 is better than KAV (I don't have any NOD experience to dispute that, but I'd sure like to know in what ways it is better)!

 

Yes Graystroke, i am considering KAV at the moment. I think waiting a week between updates, (McAFee) is simply too long. Now if they were to go to daily updates as they say they are, perhaps i would reconsider. As for Mannaggia's suggestion to use NOD32, again, not a bad choice, though their overall detection isn't consistently as good as McAfee or KAV, plus their heuristics could use some improving.

 

Not really interested in NOD32. Maybe if Mannaggia returns he can explain.

I did like McAfee, and in the short time I used it, sometimes there were updates issued before the next scheduled weekly update. So I guess you are covered if some outbreak occurs.

 

I have used mcafee and Kav5 on several ocassions and they both work very well. You can't go wrong with either one.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself bigc, they're both world-class performers. Its a win-win situation.

 

I prefer KAV because they have more support for other programs, better configuration, more light and is the best on detection...

 

I have used KAV-based products in the past. Comparing NOD32 and KAV, I will say this:

1)NOD32 is very fast as an On-Demand Scanner, KAV is not so fast all the time.

2)KAV has very good signature detection (but also detects some garbage files). NOD32 has good signature detection (not as good as KAV yet but they are getting better), and the heuristic engine is very good. KAV relies much on generic signatures, and KAV heuristics are really not that good.

3)NOD32 is better at registry cleaning than KAV.

4)KAV has an excellent unpack engine - NOD32 (and any other AV infact) does not quite have as much of an unpack capability as KAV (but the generic unpacker does help it a lot).

Overall, I rate both products the same - both have their strong points and weak points.

 

NOD32 is lighter, loads faster (on my machine anyway), scans faster, better heuristics. Just some of the things I think are important.

That is all I'm going to say on this matter. I don't want to nor did I have any intentions to highjack this thread. I apologize to Graystoke and the others for my orginal post.

 

There is a KAV approved regfix for this which stops the slow startup scan that KAV performs each time. It is recommended you apply this fix after you have done a complete system scan - just to be sure. I don't have a link to hand but it is on this forum somewhere.

On my PC, after applying this fix I can launch my browser or email client earlier during startup than I ever have with any other AV that I tried, even slightly earlier than McAfee VSE8 and NOD32 - only just though - before I anyone gets offended !!!

The first startup of the day with KAV can be a little slower as it will do an upadate but that's a good thing. After that, any restarts are very fast.

 

Thanks q1aqza. Maybe someone else has the link to that regfix. I'll try and do a search. I never have much luck when searching for threads here though.

 

Found it. I think it is Black Cat's site. Has links to teh regfix and some other really useful tips

http://www.ice-kav.com/kavtun.php

 

You beat me to it q1aqza I found it also. Ok, I uninstalled the KAV 5 trial version with about a week left. Maybe I can install it again and see if this regfix works. I'll give it a try tomorrow. It's getting late.

 

Graystoke, if i were you, then i would try the next version of Kav personal 5.0 MP3 beta 2 (maintenance pack 3) you can download it here (there are two exe's, don't use the one called update), it much nicer than the current release and the startup scan is a lot faster (a little over 1 minute on my pc). There is also a much better updatingmodule. It will be released in two weeks btw.

 

Hi Don,

Does MP3 have a mechanism for suppressing the startup scan? I don't believe 4.5 does this. At least I have never noticed sluggishness during startup. Thanks for the info and updates.

Rich

 

Hi Rich

No, it doesn't, at least i can't see that option The only reason that i can say that startupfase is a lot faster is because i actually timed it a couple of times, i normally start my pc 5 minutes before needing it anyway.

I am on this install using it without iStreams (& the IDS) btw.

Regards